Check out this lightning trout a friend's brother caught up in one of SoCal mountain lakes this past weekend.

 

Over 8lbs and the colors on that lightning trout is stunning! I've seen lightning trouts in the local park lakes, and they are more pale in color than this beauty. 

 

Spoiler alert. That's the guys thumb by the trouts mouth, not the trouts tongue...which I was pointedly corrected. 

That’s a golden rainbow.  Originally bred in West Virginia by state biologists I believe. Often called a palomino (accurate) or albino (not accurate).  I’ve never heard the term lightning trout thought. 

edit:  found the history link I was thinking of. 
 

https://wvdnr.gov/west-virginia-gold-rush-a-history-of-the-golden-rainbow-trout/

also look up the blue trout (strain of rainbows) if you want some cool colors. 

Thank you for the correction of what that trout is. I've only seen lightning trout being stocked at local SoCal lakes as of last year. So I straightly assumed that was a lightning trout.

 

I am invited to go fishing at that mountain lake in a couple Saturdays where the golden rainbow trout are stocked. If I do go, I'll be fishing with my BFS casting setups. The 23 Shimano Calcutta Conquest and Loongze Airlite BFS reels need to be christened on that trip.

 

I'll need to get a "free pass" to go fishing from the warden, aka - my wife.

That's a Golden Trout, we have them in the Arkansas White River.  Personally, I could never kill such a beautiful fish.

Genetic freak of a stocked fish.  Way prettier natural fish out there in the trout world like a golden or a brookie.  

9 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

That’s a golden rainbow.  Originally bred in West Virginia by state biologists I believe. Often called a palomino (accurate) or albino (not accurate).  I’ve never heard the term lightning trout thought. 

edit:  found the history link I was thinking of. 
 

https://wvdnr.gov/west-virginia-gold-rush-a-history-of-the-golden-rainbow-trout/

also look up the blue trout (strain of rainbows) if you want some cool colors. 

I haven't seen those blue ones before they are pretty.  Another fish that nobody would think about, not a trout, but spawning bowfin turn fluorescent green.

21 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

Genetic freak of a stocked fish.  Way prettier natural fish out there in the trout world like a golden or a brookie.  

I haven't seen those blue ones before they are pretty.  Another fish that nobody would think about, not a trout, but spawning bowfin turn fluorescent green.

 

Blues don't normally get stocked.  They are so rare in the PA hatcheries that when they find one as a found trout they pull them for the various visitors tanks they maintain.  Last time I was at the one by Pymatuning (must be 25-30 years ago?) there were a dozen in there.

 

I've never caught a bowfin.  They mostly don't exist in the waters that I've fished though they catch them in the lower delaware tribs (along with snakeheads) and I want to do a trip down there this summer.  

 

Also fully agree on there being other trout with better visuals.  These were always a favorite growing up in western PA and with a cabin in north central PA.  

 

2 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

Blues don't normally get stocked.  They are so rare in the PA hatcheries that when they find one as a found trout they pull them for the various visitors tanks they maintain.  Last time I was at the one by Pymatuning (must be 25-30 years ago?) there were a dozen in there.

 

I've never caught a bowfin.  They mostly don't exist in the waters that I've fished though they catch them in the lower delaware tribs (along with snakeheads) and I want to do a trip down there this summer.  

 

Also fully agree on there being other trout with better visuals.  These were always a favorite growing up in western PA and with a cabin in north central PA.  

 

Brookies even when not spawning look like tropical fish.  Those white tipped fins are awesome.

5 hours ago, Tackleholic said:

That's a Golden Trout, we have them in the Arkansas White River.  Personally, I could never kill such a beautiful fish.

You don’t have to kill them, everything in nature will 

 

we stocked one of those in a private stream where I work, didn’t make it two days haha. Every bird and otter was immediately on high alert trying to get the fish that looked like a Christmas tree bulb 

21 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You don’t have to kill them, everything in nature will 

 

we stocked one of those in a private stream where I work, didn’t make it two days haha. Every bird and otter was immediately on high alert trying to get the fish that looked like a Christmas tree bulb 

 

And when you stock them before opening day every bucket sitter is making every cast at one they can when they see them.  They stick out like a sore thumb to everything around.  There was a stream 5 minutes from the house growing up that was stocked in the spring.  Usually the big goldens were put in the holes near the road and we'd go for a drive after they stocked to see them.

They definitely stand out.  They stock a few of them in the local creek.  Most are caught quickly but once in a while they get washed out of the easy to fish spots and survive through the summer.  They get some competition in the local creek from goldfish that were dumped into the creek.  Once they get out of the fish bowl, goldfish can grow to a couple of pounds.  One time after some really high water koi showed up in the creek, at least for that summer.

They stock a few in the lakes here every year. I've caught a handful of them. Last year I caught 2 the same day, both on a Ned rig.

Those are pretty fish!